When Roger Clemens made his midseason return to the Yankees in 2007, I’m not sure if he rushed the return or not, but he hurt his groin rather early on in the process and it took him about a month of playing in games before he really settled in.

It seems like Andy Pettitte is trying to use that as a lesson learned because a lot of what he talks about in interviews is the need to take things slowly. On that note, Pettitte said that if everything goes well, he’ll be back in a game by May 1st.

“To tell you the truth, I didn’t think that was probably where they’d have me, because I just know how conservative they usually are,” Pettitte told Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. “I definitely feel good about doing it. We’ll throw Friday, and as we continue to go, we’re just going to see how I feel and make the adjustments from there. We’ll try not to push it too hard.”

“I realize it’s going to be right around the first of May if everything goes good,” Pettitte said. “I’m just kind of good with it. You realize there’s no reason to rush. I’m going to be down here and just try to get as prepared as I possibly can.”

So while he is going to pitch to live batters on Friday and there is talk that he could even get into a game during the Grape Fruit League season, it seems like he is taking this thing very deliberately. Look for Pettitte’s return somewhere around May 1st.

About Rob Abruzzese

Rob Abruzzese created Bronx Baseball Daily in 2008 just before graduating from Brooklyn College. He currently serves BBD as its editor and works as a reporter at the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Follow Rob on Twitter @RobAbruzzese.